CH 46

The group of people from the Shen family ignored them and quickened their pace. Even though they couldn’t just leave the people behind, they didn’t want to be too close either.

They walked for three days like this, encountering many people along the way, and the people from Shen village continued to follow them.

They had been away from home for almost half a month now, and everyone’s food and water supplies had dwindled significantly.

The weather was terrible, and they could manage to eat less food, but without water, they would be in serious trouble.

The people from Shen village who had been following them for three or four days were getting restless.

They had not been able to obtain any food from the Shen family during this time, not even a single grain of rice.

During their daily rest time, they would go to Shen’s house to try to get some news, but it didn’t work at all.

The reason was that Shen Rong, the scholar, didn’t want to share his food with them.

They were all neighbors and should help each other, isn’t that what they should do?

They only thought about asking Shen’s family to share some of their food because they didn’t have enough, but the family was cold-hearted and pretended not to understand.

On the third day at noon, the people from Shen’s family finally stopped to rest, and the others quickly found a spot to sit down.

“Get down here!” The second daughter-in-law of grandpa Shen Xingwang pulled him off the cart.

The old grandfather stumbled when he was pulled, but he quickly stabilized himself by using his cane to prevent himself from falling.

The others had already become accustomed to this behavior.

On the first day, they tried to persuade him, but when they found that it was useless, they stopped trying.

The second daughter-in-law continued to mutter, “If you can’t help push the cart, that’s one thing, but you also take up space on the cart. We really owe you for this.”

Originally, when they went to call the old grandfather, they hoped that Shen’s family would give them some food out of respect for him.

However, they returned empty-handed, without even a trace of food.

Shen’s family acted as if they had forgotten about the old grandfather since he returned. They didn’t even spare him a glance.

Since they didn’t get any food, there was now one more person to feed every day.

The more the second daughter-in-law thought about it, the angrier she became.

She glanced at the old grandfather and said, “We don’t have much food left at home. Let Xiaobao have your lunch today.”

The others glanced at each other and then looked away. They didn’t have the kindness to share their food with him.

But they didn’t want to risk being mistaken for wanting food.

The water they brought with them was almost gone, so no one bothered to start a fire to cook.

Shen’s family also had a simple meal, eating a piece of flatbread and drinking some water. They just managed to get by with this meal.

On the other side.

“UghUgh” Lin Chunyan was eating a piece of dry bread when suddenly a feeling of nausea overwhelmed her.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you, Chunyan?” an aunt sitting next to her asked with concern.

“I’m fine…” she tried to say.

“UghUgh”

She didn’t even finish speaking when the feeling of nausea overwhelmed her again.

Ma Shi quickly took the bread from her hand.

“Oh my, what’s wrong with you? Don’t waste our food!”

“Girl, what’s wrong with you?” Ma Shi asked repeatedly while rubbing Lin Chunyan’s back.

Lin Chunyan held her chest and suddenly realized that her period had not come for almost two months!

Could it be… Could it be… !!!

“Is it possible that you are pregnant, Chunyan?” a young woman exclaimed in surprise.

“Looking at her appearance, she seems to be experiencing happiness from pregnancy.”

After the young woman spoke, the others looked at Lin Chunyan and Wang Zhicai, who were resting nearby, with strange looks in their eyes.

“Calculating the days, it has been one or two months indeed, but it’s still hard to say for sure,” said someone.

For a moment, the expressions of the crowd were varied, and their gazes were so piercing that it seemed like they wanted to stare a hole into Lin Chunyan.

With a complex expression, Lin Chunyan touched her abdomen with her hand.

“I’m pregnant… with the child of Brother Wang. It’s brother Wang’s child!”

Thinking of how everyone had been ridiculing her for the past month, Lin Chunyan’s gaze slowly became firm.

It seemed like even the heavens were helping her. She must use this child to marry Brother Wang

“What? She’s pregnant!” Ma Shi exclaimed in shock.

Ma Shi panicked and said, “Oh my, what should we do? My daughter hasn’t married yet. We can’t have a little tag-along now.”

While Lin Chunyan was thinking about how to get Wang Zhicai’s attention, a ‘well-meaning’ aunt covered her mouth and laughed.

“How can you call it a tag-along? Your Chunyan is blessed. The child in her belly is Wang Xiucai’s first child,” someone said.

Another person whispered, “Wang Xiucai’s mother, Lady Hu, has been wanting a grandchild for a long time. She will definitely recognize this child as hers.”

“Wang Xiucai took the girl’s body, and now she’s pregnant. This can’t be solved with just a few hundred pounds of grain,” several women said, trying to console Lin Chunyan.

Ma Shi also thought the same way. Although their family had received two hundred pounds of grain from the Wang family earlier, that was just compensation for the loss of her daughter’s purity.

But with a pregnancy, it was a whole new level of marriage.

“You’re right. My precious daughter can’t be dismissed with just two hundred pounds of grain!”

As she spoke, Ma Shi pulled Lin Chunyan, who had already recovered from her shock, to stand up. The women who had been watching the scene also crowded around Ma Shi and Lin Chunyan as they headed towards the direction of the Wang family.

Sitting not far away from the crowd, the Shen family saw the people of Shen Village causing a commotion again.

Zhao Shi was someone who loved to be in the midst of excitement, as long as it wasn’t her own. She could always be found wherever there was action in the village.

But seeing how the situation had escalated to this point, it might not be a good idea to go and join the commotion now.

“What’s going on now?” Zhao Shi asked as she stood up and looked towards the crowd.

Zhao took a look around and finally grabbed Shen Yu’an and said, “Yu’an, let’s go and see the excitement too.”

Seeing Zhao’s excited look, Shen Yu’an didn’t refuse and followed her to go together.

…

After seeing the excitement, Zhao Shi pulled Shen Yu’an’s arm back again.

After coming back, they couldn’t help but share what they had just seen.

“You guys didn’t see it, but just now Ma went to the Wang family with her daughter to cause trouble, at the home of that scholar Wang.”

“Lin Chunyan is pregnant, and her morning sickness was just seen.”

“…”

“That girl was crying so hard that she could hardly catch her breath, but she kept saying that it wasn’t Scholar Wang’s fault.”

“Oh dear, she looked so pitiful, it’s heart-wrenching to see.”

“Originally, when Hu heard that Lin Chunyan was pregnant, her eyes went wide. But she still wouldn’t let go and said that her son’s main wife was already pregnant, so if Lin Chunyan wanted to enter the door, she would have to be a concubine.”

“…”

Zhao kept talking and explained everything that had happened just now.

Shen Yu’an watched and felt like Aunt Zhao Shi was performing the excitement of several people just with her one mouth.

“So did Ma agree to it like that?”

“No, definitely not. In the end, they also asked for a bag of grain from the Wang family,” Zhao continued. “I think Hu is just waiting to have a golden grandson. If that girl doesn’t give birth to a boy this time, I don’t think she’ll have a good life.”

Shen Yu’an listened to what her aunt said and couldn’t help but admire Lin Chunyan’s superb acting skills just now.

If it weren’t for Lin Chunyan having the time to glare at her when she was gasping for breath while crying, she would have almost believed it.